


A New Day's Light

by Serie11



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Banter, Beaches, Braveheart - Freeform, Canon Compliant, Destiny Islands (Kingdom Hearts), During Canon, F/M, Kairi is the best at helping Riku think things through, Keyblade headcanons, Keyblades, Kingdom Hearts III, Kissing, Minor Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Multi, Neck Kissing, POV Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Personal Growth, Play Fighting, Relationship Discussions, Riku has come so far!! hes such a good boy, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Reflection, Teasing, set before Riku gets his new Keyblade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 11:16:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17724137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/pseuds/Serie11
Summary: Yen Sid regards Riku silently for a few seconds. “No Keyblade Master can ever have their Keyblade taken from them – indeed, in the old days it was considered… a coming of age, of sorts, for a Keyblade to break. It means that you have changed, and that your Keyblade intends to change with you.”





	A New Day's Light

Riku follows Mickey up the stairs of the Tower, wondering why the magic of this place can’t just teleport them from the front door to Yen Sid’s room. All the times he’s been here, the Tower has behaved slightly differently – rooms and stairs suspended in nothing, sometimes with enemies to fight along the way. He’s grateful that this time there doesn’t appear to be any Heartless or Nobodies about. With his Keyblade left in the Realm of Darkness and Mickey’s hanging on by a thread, he would have been reduced to shooting magic at them, and he really prefers to hit things when he can.

Even though there aren’t any enemies, the stairs are almost as daunting. He just wants to get to the top…

Head down, he follows Mickey.

When they finally reach Yen Sid’s room (actually, why does it have to be at the top of the Tower? Does he just like the view?), Riku is thinking up ways to magic himself up here the next time he needs to talk to Yen Sid. Maybe he could ice the side of the railings of the stairs and use flowmotion to ride all the way up? But then he’d have to be almost continuously using blizzard, and that’s not sustainable…

He’s so lost in his thoughts that he misses the other two people that are standing in Yen Sid’s study until one of them wraps him in a warm hug.

“Riku!” Kairi cheers. “I’m so glad to see you!”

“Huh?” Riku says, fumbling with what to do with his hands until he remembers to hug Kairi back. She’s still lithe, but she feels sturdier under his hands.

“This is when you say hello back, silly,” Kairi teases, grinning up at him.

“Oh, right. Hello, Kairi.”

She lets go of him to lightly punch his shoulder. Riku resists the urge to pull her closer again. Her light is so _warm_ and so welcoming, especially when it’s directed just at him instead of blinding him accidentally. When Sora’s in the same room as them, he and Kairi focus on each other a lot, their light blending together to make something more than when they are separate. Sometimes it gets to be a little too much for him, but he can handle Kairi by herself.

“Master Riku,” Yen Sid says formally. “Mickey. By Aqua’s absence, I can only assume that you did not find her in the Realm of Darkness.”

“No,” Mickey says sadly. Kairi flicks a look at him from where she’s standing and steps in closer to press warmly against his side. Riku gratefully leans into her, their failure stabbing at him uncomfortably. They were ill-equipped for such a mission, which is why they retreated – but Aqua has been in the Realm of Darkness for over twelve years. _She_ never had the option to retreat.

He tucks a hand into Kairi’s jacket pocket so he can comfortably wrap his arm around her. Mickey starts to give the details of their mission. Riku looks over at Lea, who is leaning against a bookshelf casually, but his eyes flick between whoever’s speaking. He’s clearly following the situation closely.

“Riku’s Keyblade broke, and mine almost did,” Mickey concludes. “And that’s why we decided to come back and regroup.”

Yen Sid nods. “Mickey, your Keyblade should be fine after undergoing some repairs. Yours is a different matter, Riku.”

Riku grits his teeth. “Yeah. Nothing’s ever easy.”

Yen Sid regards him silently for a few seconds. “No Keyblade Master can ever have their Keyblade taken from them – indeed, in the old days it was considered… a coming of age, of sorts, for a Keyblade to break. It means that you have changed, and that your Keyblade intends to change with you.”

“So it’s because he became a Master?” Kairi asks.

Yen Sid shakes his head. “No, that is not always the catalyst, though it is not completely uncommon. What Riku achieved in the sleeping worlds showed us and himself his growth. I was expecting something like this to happen sooner rather than later.”

“So what happens now?” Riku asks. He feels on edge from the lack of ability to summon a Keyblade – and he had _tried,_ on the way back here. Several times.

Yen Side strokes his beard. “Often a time of self-reflection helps to consolidate the change. I suggest travelling back to your Destiny Islands and using the peace there to think about your journeys and how they have affected you.”

Vaguely confusing and not straightforward advice from Yen Sid is just about what he expects from him, so Riku is hardly surprised by the advice. Even so, he’s not sure how to feel. Self-reflection?

“Oh, if you’re going home can I come with you?” Kairi asks brightly. “I did tell my dad that I’d check in with him when possible, and I kind of miss the islands.”

“Of course you can come,” Riku says. Thinking about having Kairi there with him makes getting his Keyblade back seem like a far more doable task. She’s always been the one to come up with the most ideas when they were kids.

“It is important to rest while training,” Yen Sid says. “Lea, you are free to stay here, or I can summon the train to take you to Twilight Town.”

“What, I’m not invited to go along with the lovebirds?” Lea asks wryly. Riku does his best to not give him a black look.

“Riku needs space to think, not to deal with you,” Kairi says, sticking her tongue out at him. “You’d be chaos on the islands.”

“Because everyone would be fighting over me, I know,” Lea sighs. “It’s a hard life, being blessed with my good looks.”

Riku snorts. Lea gives him a wounded look.

Kairi tuts at him. “Come on Riku, there’s no time to waste! We should go now.”

He’s tired but a nap on the beach sounds far more relaxing then staying here and trying to deal with Lea some more. “Alright,” he agrees, and Kairi grins up at him, smile wide and genuine. Riku can’t help but feel like he’s the luckiest idiot in the world to have her as a girlfriend.

“Good luck,” Mickey says, and Riku waves at him as they leave the room.

* * *

 

Kairi is right. He does miss the islands when he’s away.

Riku grabs a handful of sand and lets it trickle out of his fist, eyes closed as he lays on the shore of the play island. He’d landed them on the outskirts of town and Kairi had gone to see her dad, telling him that she would come to the play island later. Riku had furtively ducked home, but his parents hadn’t been there, and he’d almost smashed the back window while trying to climb through it. Normally he wouldn’t have risked it, but the new clothes Yen Sid had given him weren’t exactly suited for beach wear.

So he’s lounging in normal beach clothes while hoping that no kids come and disturb his peace. From the lack of children about he’s assuming that it’s a school day, which is good for the quiet he likes. The shores of the play island bring back so many memories, not all of them good. But maybe that’s a way to reflect, as well. His jealousy from the past is almost completely gone now, and what little remains is whittled away every time Kairi and Sora kiss him, and tell him that they love him. The darkness that had been flared by the closeness they shared is firmly under his control now. He won’t ever hurt them again.

He must fall asleep, because the next thing he notices is the splashing of a canoe getting closer. He sits up groggily and looks out towards the main island. It’s Kairi, in a boat paddling over. She’s still wearing the same clothes that she’d been wearing this morning. He lifts a hand in greeting and stands, dusting some of the sand off.

He heads over to the dock in time to see Kairi finish tying her boat up.

“Have a nap?” she teases.

“Maybe,” Riku says.

“I can tell by your sunburn,” she says, reaching up to trail a finger over his cheek. Riku winces. He’s always burnt more easily than Sora or Kairi, but usually it isn’t that bad. He can probably heal it with a curaga later if it starts to really hurt.

“Is your dad okay?” Riku asks.

“Yep!” Kairi says. She toes her shoes of and jumps off the dock onto the sand. Riku lands beside her and grins when he notices that she’s flexing her toes in the sand. It’s cute. “I think he was kind of surprised to see me. It’s so weird – it feels like it’s been way longer for me, but that’s just because of Merlin’s magic chamber. Even seeing you – it feels like it’s been months!”

“Months with only Lea and Merlin for company,” Riku muses. “I always knew you were stronger than me.”

Kairi laughs, and starts walking along the beach. Riku falls into step with her easily.

“Well, how long do you think it’s been?” she asks, curious.

“Since I sent you off?” he pauses. “Three days. I think. It’s hard to tell how time passes in the Realm of Darkness.”

“Dad said it’s been a week and a half since I left,” Kairi tells him. “You must have lost some time too.”

“Huh,” Riku says. “I guess I must have. I wonder what Sora’s up to without us to keep him out of trouble.”

“Donald and Goofy are with him,” Kairi reminds him. “I just can’t believe they let him out there to train while I have to stay inside! I want to go and see cool things too.”

“Hmm. Well, Sora only has to remember – you have to build up more in a shorter period of time.” Brightening, he starts walking towards the beach shack. “Wait a second – let me grab the wooden swords and you can show me what you can do.”

“Oh yeah, beach fight!” Kairi cheers. Riku grins to himself as he steps into the coolness of the shack, and rummages around until he finds two swords. When they were younger he remembers this place having almost anything they could want. Having to root around for the swords feels odd. Maybe it’s just because less children come out here anymore. Kairi says that after he and Sora disappeared, parents stopped letting kids go out to the play island as freely as they once had.

He leaves the shadows reluctantly, his darkness curling up on itself as he steps back into the light. Kairi bounces excitedly as he hands her a sword, and he falls into his normal fighting position, letting her make the first move.

“No magic, just showing off,” Kairi says. “And start!”

She jumps towards him and he only just cartwheels out of the way. Not being able to dispel and then resummon his Keyblade means he has to hold on to his sword throughout the manoeuvre, which dampens his speed significantly. The sand is also less than stable, but growing up basically on the beach means that he easily falls back into the pattern of running on sand.

Kairi lunges again, and Riku blocks this time, grunting as she hits harder than he had expected. He comes in with an overhand strike and Kairi parries it by attacking at the same moment. It’s a move straight from Sora’s book, and Riku recovers faster than she does and strikes again, getting the first hit of the match. Kairi staggers but is back on the offensive faster than Riku had expected.

Kairi’s hits are straightforward and aggressive, just like they’ve always been. Sora fights the most defensively out of the three of them with his habit of throwing reflects into the middle of his combos, but Riku knows when to guard if he needs to _._ Kairi fights like she’s never heard of the concept of a block.

He lets her hit him a few times to gauge her combo finishers and recovery after them. He doesn’t go too easy on her either, letting the slips in her defences play into his style of exploiting an enemy’s weakness.

As the fight draws on, Riku is clearly the one with more stamina. He blocks one of her attacks and then steps in to trip her as she staggers, and she falls flat on the sand. Riku buries his sword in the sand and leans against it as she gasps in air.

“Ouch! That one was tricky,” she finally says. “Good job, oh Master Keyblade wielder.”

Riku huffs a laugh. “You weren’t too bad yourself, oh Master-in-training.”

He offers a hand and Kairi grabs it. He pulls her up and she tackles him to the ground in return. He exhales sharply as she lands on his chest, but then she kisses him so he supposes he forgives her.

“Ha! And that’s a sign to never let your guard down,” Kairi says triumphantly. Riku rolls his eyes. Kairi kisses him again, and then kisses up his jaw to bite his ear, which is one of his ticklish spots.

“Gah! Kairi!” he says, shoving at her. She doesn’t let herself get pushed off, tightening her grip on him and dragging her tongue down to his neck. Riku feels himself flush even as he’s suddenly not sure where to put his hands. Damn it. This is just like hugging her. He just needs to… hug back. Kind of.

“K-Kairi,” he says, hands ending up on her waist. Is that weird? It feels weird. Or maybe he’s imagining things. He’s probably imagining things.

“I said I _missed_ you,” Kairi says stubbornly. She kisses his mouth again and Riku kisses her back because yeah, even after being apart for what only feels like days to him, he missed her too. Logically, he knows that there’s a lot of ground for all of them to cover and that’s best done by splitting up… emotionally, he never wants to be parted from Kairi and Sora again.

Riku parts his lips and Kairi presses her tongue inside his mouth, as forward here as she is in her fighting. She wriggles one of her legs between his and if his face hadn’t been flushed before it’s definitely red now.

“Kairi!” he yelps as she moves _just so_ and reaches down to pull his leg up around her. It’s not that he _doesn’t_ want to uh, do _stuff_ but they haven’t exactly done anything like this before. Well they have, but Kairi is being _very_ determined and Kairi knowing what she wants normally results in Kairi _getting_ what she wants.

She sighs into his mouth. “I – sorry. We don’t have to anything if you don’t want.”

Half of him is very much telling him to shut up and keep kissing her, but that’s also the half that never wants to let her or Sora out of his sight again.

“It’s just – there’s a lot of sand here,” he says awkwardly. Kairi raises an eyebrow. “We’re dealing with – with _delicate_ parts! Delicate and sand don’t mix!”

Kairi laughs at him and Riku’s resists the urge to melt. She tucks her head under his chin and snorts into his chest and Riku only feels mildly embarrassed about the whole thing.

“Okay, your place or mine?” she asks, but she’s still sniggering.

“Shit, can you imagine my parents coming home to that?” Riku asks, horrified. That just sets Kairi off to laughing even harder. “I hardly ever come home or talk to them, and, and–”

“Bad enough you have a boyfriend and a girlfriend,” Kairi giggles. “How dare you flaunt it in front of them!”

“Don’t even joke about that,” Riku says, shaking his head. He pauses to try and think about wording before blurting out his question. “Besides, what about Sora? You… don’t want him to, uh…”

Kairi hums. “I don’t think he wants to, yet. And besides, I can already tell that our first time with him is going to be an _experience_ without it being the first experience, you know?” She leans up so he can see her face, and winks at him. “Besides, I had a crush on you first.”

“Pff, you better be grateful that I deal with your enthusiasm,” Riku says, pushing her off him. She laughs and rolls to the side so they’re lying next to each other on the beach.

“So how’d I go?” she asks.

Riku thinks about her lips on his collarbone and how it’d made him feel all twisty inside. “Uh… really good…”

She kicks at his shin. “I _meant_ the fight!”

“Oh, right of course,” Riku says. His face is probably bright red. Maybe he can blame it on the sunburn. “Um. You _do_ know how to block, right?”

She kicks at him again. “I do! I just… don’t like using it.”

“There are some attacks that are far too hard to dodge,” Riku tells her. “You need to be ready for them as soon as they start. There’s no room for mistakes on a real battlefield.”

“I know,” Kairi sighs. She sits up and starts piling sand on top of him. Riku lets her because it’s not like he can get much sandier at this point. “But that’s why I want to get out there instead of being in Merlin’s training room! We don’t fight _real_ Heartless. I know that a lot of fighting is practise and knowing what to do, but fighting under pressure and fighting something that can kill you are definitely two different things.”

“I agree,” Riku says. He’d been play fighting for years on the islands, but a few months fighting Heartless had furthered his skills more than anything he could have done if he’d still been stuck here. “And you’re pretty good, but maybe a bit too focused. You won’t normally be fighting just one enemy.”

Kairi hums thoughtfully. “Yeah, I guess. But you can only really hit one enemy at a time! So it makes sense to concentrate on just one.”

“Just because you’re hitting one doesn’t mean that more than one can’t hit you,” Riku warns. “And you can definitely hit more than one enemy at a time, look –” He jumps up, disturbing the small mountain of sand that Kairi had piled on his stomach, and summons his Keyblade.

…or tries to, anyway.

“Damn it,” Riku mutters to himself. Kairi shoots him a sympathetic look.

“Still not coming to you?”

“Apparently not,” he says, trying not to feel frustrated. ‘Self-reflection’… what does that even mean?

“Well if you got here and took a nap and then woke up when I came then you probably haven’t been doing much thinking,” Kairi points out. “Why don’t we go up to the paopu tree and enjoy the sun and the breeze, hm?”

She stands up and grabs his hand. Riku lets her pull him along, trying not to let his thoughts fester. Thinking… there’s a reason he normally avoids thinking too much.

At the paopu tree, Kairi jumps up to her usual spot and Riku leans against the tree, looking out over the water. With the sun reflecting off the waves, you almost can’t see the main island. When he was younger, it used to make him feel even more claustrophobic, aching for a time when he could flee. Now, he’s just glad that he’s alone with Kairi.

He hears her shifting and leans forward when she taps his shoulder. When he leans back he makes sure not to put too much of his weight against her legs. Kairi threads her fingers through her hair and sighs.

“I still can’t believe you cut it… it was so nice before! And I could play with it for ages.”

“It’s easier to manage like this,” Riku says. “Especially since you can’t put twenty braids in it anymore.”

Kairi huffs at him. Riku closes his eyes. Her hands in his hair do him more good then he’d like to let on.

“So why do you think your Keyblade broke?” Kairi asks.

Riku folds his arms. “Like Mickey said. The Heartless we were fighting… it was very strong.”

“And like Master Yen Sid said, Keyblades don’t break without a reason,” Kairi points out. “A reason to do with the wielder. So it had nothing to do with what you were fighting.”

“Maybe,” Riku admits. “That Keyblade has been with me since I left the Islands. It feels like so long ago… I never thought I’d be without it.”

“It has been a long time,” Kairi points out. “But Sora told me that it’s changed before, hasn’t it?”

“After Sora woke up,” he admits. “It gained a wing on the end of the blade, and it _did_ feel different, but it didn’t break.”

“Maybe you didn’t need a big change, then,” Kairi muses. “Just a small one.”

“I knew what I was doing,” Riku says.

“What?” Kairi presses.

He ducks his head a little bit, glad he can’t see her face. “I was… walking the road to dawn. I had fallen into darkness, but I wanted to head back to the light.”

“And you got there,” Kairi says. “Well, no wonder it broke. The promise you made to it is complete.”

“It is?” Riku asks, confused. He never made a promise to his Keyblade… just to himself. And his Keyblade is meant to be an extension of that self, isn’t it?

He hums thoughtfully, and can almost feel Kairi’s broad grin.

“I don’t know if I’ve made it yet,” he finally admits. “It still feels like one misstep could send me back to the darkness. When we were in the Realm of Darkness… I felt it chewing at me. A part of me doesn’t want to go back there.”

“Riku, no offence but you’re an idiot,” Kairi says, exasperated. “It’s the _Realm of Darkness._ No one in their right mind would want to go back there! That’s why you’re trying to rescue Master Aqua – you know that it must be horrible for her, right?”

“Well, yeah,” he admits.

Kairi makes an affirming sound. “That’s right. Which _means_ that you’re totally fine in not wanting to go back. And I think that means that your one ‘misstep’ that could lead to darkness is going to have to be a lot bigger than you think to actually get you there.”

Riku looks out over the sea. “Maybe.”

“Wasn’t your whole Mark of Mastery test about seeing if you could deal with the darkness?” Kairi presses.

“It wasn’t meant to be,” Riku says.

“But that’s what ended up happening.” Kairi puts her hands on his shoulders and uses him as a springboard to jump over his head and land on the ground in front of him. “So you _know_ that you can face the darkness. You’ve done it lots of times! Stop underestimating yourself, okay? You have a brave heart, Riku. I have faith in you.”

“A… brave heart?” Riku murmurs, more to himself than to her.

“Yes,” Kairi says confidently. “A brave heart.” She stands on her tip toes to press a kiss to his cheek. “Try and remember that.”

Riku lets out a breath. “I… yeah. I can face the dark.” He smiles at her, and Kairi lights up, grinning back. “Thank you, Kairi.”

He lifts his hand, and is unsurprised when his Keyblade flashes to fill it. He blinks at how different it is – it’s long and steel grey and practical and _useful._

“Oh, cool!” Kairi says, bouncing on the spot. It’s adorable. “I knew you could do it! What’s its name?”

Riku listens to the Keyblade and smirks. “Braveheart.”

Kairi’s eyes shine up at him. “Braveheart, huh? It fits.”

Riku huffs out a laugh. “Yeah, I think it does.” He slashes to get a feel for the weight, and it fits in his hand comfortably. It feels different from Way to the Dawn. More experienced. This is a Master’s blade.

“Let’s go,” Riku says, suddenly feeling better about their chances at rescuing Aqua. “You have to get back to training, and I have a lost Master to find.” He dispels the Keyblade and starts walking back towards the island. Kairi skips so she’s at his side.

“You better keep training,” she says. “I almost had you a few times when we were sparring. I’m going to catch up to you in no time!”

Riku can’t help but smile. “I know you will.”

With Kairi by his side and the constant hum of Braveheart at the back of his mind, Riku thinks that they might even have a chance at completing their current goals. He wouldn’t bet against them, that’s for sure.

Kairi starts to hum a song he remembers from when they were younger, and he reaches out to take her hand. She squeezes it and looks at him, grinning brightly.

Yeah. He isn’t going to let anything stand in their way. 

**Author's Note:**

> As soon as I saw that Riku's new Keyblade was named Braveheart I was like '!!!!!!!!!!! Kairi gives him that'. So here's my take on how Riku got his Keyblade :D


End file.
